Traditionally in dishwashers, racks for housing goods to be cleaned can only be moved horizontally in and out of a tub of the dishwasher. For a lower rack placed at a bottom of the tub, a user will have to bend over to perform loading or unloading of goods. This may result in physical discomfort, in particular for disabled and/or elder people.
Therefore, rack elevation arrangements have been developed to move the lower rack from a lower position at the bottom of the tub to an upper position where the rack is moved out of the tub and elevated to a height on a level with an upper rack, by means of spring loaded pivot arms lifting the lower rack from its lower position to its upper position. Such a rack elevation arrangement is disclosed for instance in US 2012/0074080 or WO 2014/033092. When in the upper position, the lower rack is locked to prevent it from being displaced, thereby facilitating for a user the loading and unloading of goods in the lower rack.
A problem with this rack elevation arrangement is the operation that a user will have to perform to return the lower rack from the upper, locked position to its lower position. In WO 2014/033092, the user needs to push the elevated lower rack, being locked in the upper position, along a sliding rail in which the lower rack is mounted in a horizontal direction towards the interior of the dishwasher. Upon horizontal displacement of the lower rack towards the interior of the dishwasher, the lower rack will unlock and the user can press the lower rack towards its lower position at the bottom of the tub, thereby causing the spring loaded pivot arms to return the lower rack to its lower position.